Qolasim (Colossians) 2

¹For I wish you to know what a great struggle I have for you and those in Laodikeia, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

²in order that their hearts might be encouraged, being knit together in love, and to all riches of the entire confirmation of understanding, to a true knowledge of the secret of Elohim, and of the Father, and of the Messiah,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.[#See Isa. 11:2; Col. 2:9]

⁴And this I say, so that no one deceives you with enticing words.

⁵For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your belief in Messiah.

⁶Therefore, as you accepted Messiah יהושע the Master, walk in Him,

⁷having been rooted and built up in Him, and established in the belief, as you were taught, overflowing in it with thanksgiving.

⁸See to it that no one makes a prey of you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary matters of the world, and not according to Messiah.[#See Col. 1:20 and Gal. 4:3; Gal. 4:9]

⁹Because in Him dwells all the completeness of Elohim-ness bodily,

¹⁰and you have been made complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and authority.

¹¹In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Messiah,

¹²having been buried with Him in immersion, in which you also were raised with Him through the belief in the working of Elohim, who raised Him from the dead.

¹³And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,[#See Eph. 2:1]

¹⁴having blotted out that which was written by hand against us – by the dogmas – which stood against us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the stake.[#Dogmas - also see Col. 2:20 and Eph. 2:15]

¹⁵Having stripped the principalities and the authorities, He made a public display of them, having prevailed over them in it.

¹⁶Let no one therefore judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths –

¹⁷which are a shadow of what is to come – but the Body of the Messiah.[#The Body of Messiah is to give ruling on all matters, not the outsiders! See also Mat. 18:15-20]

¹⁸Let no one deprive you of the prize, one who takes delight in false humility and worship of messengers, taking his stand on what he has not seen, puffed up by his fleshly mind,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the Body – nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments – grows with the growth of Elohim.

²⁰If, then, you died with Messiah from the elementary matters of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to dogmas:[#See Col. 2:8 and Gal. 4:3; Gal. 4:9; #Dogmas - also see Col. 2:14 and Eph. 2:15]

²¹“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle” –

²²which are all to perish with use – according to the commands and teachings of men?[#Isa. 29:13; #See also Mat. 15:8, 9 Mark 7:6, 7]

²³These indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed worship, humiliation and harsh treatment of the body – of no value at all, only for satisfaction of the flesh.